


Ren Tanaka - Origins

by Ignisleo



Category: Freediver: Triton down (vr game)
Genre: Prequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25827532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignisleo/pseuds/Ignisleo
Summary: Before Ren got on board the Triton, she has planned for a completely different career, until Doctor Lindström crossed her path...





	Ren Tanaka - Origins

"You coming with us, Ren?"

"Only if you don't try to get me to another sushi bar. The last ones were okay, but nothing more. Besides, I eat other things as well, you know that." She gives her friends a wink and a smile.

"No, this time it's the 'Fiddlers Green'. An Irish pub. Opened a few weeks ago. And after that lecture I really need some downtime."

The young man led the group down the road near Vancouver university to an alley, where lots and lots of bars and restaurants are lined up. One of them had a large four-leaved clover above the entrance. He gestured at the two women to enter.

Ren nodded and looked slightly up to her friend. Out of her group she was the shortest, her straight black hair cut neatly at the neck.

"Second that. Some interesting thoughts that guy had, nevertheless. What was his name again?"

"Sundström?", the second woman of the group said while the group took their seats. Her green eyes narrowed to slits.

"Lindström", the boy corrects.

"Whatever. That guy was strange, creepy somehow. Remember how he looked at us? Especially at you, Ren?"

"What did you expect, Judy? I was the only one asking questions."

"Granted, but his hypothesis? That was really strange."

Ren sighed. "That theory about rogue waves, them being a kind of resonance? Why not? Rogue waves are a fact."

"Yes, when earthquake displacements hit land. No sound involved." The boy made a smug face. Then he took a sip out of the glass the waitress had put in front of them.

The green eyed girl sighed. "Ken, you mean tsunamis. Rogue waves are different."

Tsunamis. Earthquake waves. Ren suppressed a shudder. Another reason she was here, in Canada, not at home anymore. Growing up at the Pacific ring of fire sure left a mark.

Time to change the subject, she thought. And one thing always worked, especially with Kenneth. "What about your next field trip with the dive club?"

"The big one? To Halifax?"

She nodded. Kenneth always could tell those interesting stories, and she liked to listen.

"It will be great. A lot of boat dives, Kelp, seals, fish, and if we're lucky even a whale. Granted, not too warm, not like Bali or Maldives, but really cool!" He blushed. "Pun not intended."

Now Judy chimed in. "Why don't you join us and learn it? From what I've seen when we were in the pool, you swim already like a fish. And learning to use all of the equipment would be easy for you, as quick as you are grasping new things in our lectures."

"Yes! Why not? We all three together on that Halifax trip? We would have so much fun!"

Ren rolled her eyes. "You know, Ken, if I would want to dive in a freezer, I would just step outside, not go across the whole continent. Vancouver bay is cold enough."

He looked at her, slightly hurt. "In a good drysuit it is no problem, I can assure you. You know that."

Right, Kenneth was from Halifax. She forgot, didn't want to hurt his feelings. "I know, but that doesn't mean I would like those things or that I want to learn it. Always looks like a swimming fridge, too bulky, too clumsy. Too much stuff."

Kenneth gave her a sideways look. "You diving without any gear, that really is strange. I mean, you do the whole length of the olympic pool on one breath? Or when you picked up those keys of that boy out of the deep pit as if it was nothing? How can you stay under for so long? Is that some Japanese thing?"

Ren frowned. This was something she didn't like to discuss, least of all with 'gaijin', foreigners. But Kenneth, Judy? They were her friends, and friends were not really foreigners, were they? On the other hand, that was personal, and quite a dark spot, she had to admit. This was something she would only discuss with family, if ever. But here? On the other side of the Pacific? Her friends were the closest she had family-wise. They had a right to know, hadn't they?

Not completely sure if this was the right place and the right time, she made up her mind and began. The half-finished pint in front of her surely helped.

"See, it is not exactly a 'Japanese thing' as you said. Not all are brought up like that. But I was. My mother taught me how to do it when I was a kid."

"Your… mother?" Judy wasn't sure she understood correctly. "Your real, actual mother taught you? This is not a lost-in-translation thing?"

She nodded, and scolded herself for starting it in the first place. Well, no turning back now. "Yes, my mother. She did what her mother did with her and like all twenty generations before. They all made a living of the sea, by diving for seafood. Clams, sea urchins, kelp. You name it."

"Like fishermen, but all women?" Kenneth looked slightly amused.

Ren wasn't. "If your 'fishermen' went down twenty, thirty meters, without suits, in a cold ocean, for three minutes or more at a time, in every weather, for hours and hours on end, day after day, just to make a living, yes." She tried to suppress the anger welling up in her. It was a mistake, discussing it with them. They didn't understand, how should they? Gaijin never did. How could they understand tradition? They didn't have any, at least not in the way she grew up. Another painful memory jumped to her mind, and a feeling of shame. Tradition. She broke it, decided to go to university, instead of following her mother's footsteps. She could too well remember those sad and angry faces when she announced her decision.

Just luck that the pub still was quite empty. She imagined being overheard, and that thought sent a shiver down her spine.

Kenneth and Judy seemed to have gotten it after all, at least judging by their looks. "Wow. So deep, and so long. In every weather?"

She nodded. "Yes. They are…"

A deep voice from behind let them spin around. "They are called 'ama', women of the sea." A man appeared from behind, tall, sharp-cut features, curly grey-white hair, with the air of a seafarer all around him.

"Professor Lindström!", Kenneth exclaimed in surprise.

"Doctor Lindström, not Professor. I've got no fixed post yet." There was a slight accent in his voice, Ren noted. Scottish? But that name definitely wasn't. It sounded more like those names from that old French science-fiction fantasy, where explorers took off to find the center of the earth below Iceland. "May I join you?"

The three friends gave each other a quizzing look. They were inclined to say no, but something in Ren urged her otherwise. Besides, it would be quite impolite, wouldn't it? Especially impolite to a teacher. Ren would never have said 'no', although she wasn't too pleased. There was a strange atmosphere in the pub, an atmosphere of change.

"Sure", she said and indicated to an empty chair at the table. Doctor Lindström nodded and sat down.

"Why?", mouthed Judy to her and pulled up her brow, but she gave her her unfathomable smile, like always when she tried to keep her feelings to herself.

Doctor Lindström smiled. "They are an ancient group, amazing women. They dive for a living, and legend says that tradition is thousands of years old."

Kenneth nodded. "That's what Ren here told us already. She even said that..."

"I said that those traditions are sacred for us", she blushed and concluded the sentence with a sideways glance to her friend. Discussing her heritage with her friends was one thing, with a complete stranger a completely different matter.

Doctor Lindström nodded, but rested his gaze longer on Ren than she felt comfortable with. As if he is suspecting something, she thought. But that couldn't be, could it?

"I noticed you in the lecture. Interesting questions you had there, I must admit."

"But it is a strange theory, for sure", answered Judy. "Rogue waves being caused by sound resonances?"

Ren held up her hand. "We came here to wind down, not continue the discussions, remember?" She took another sip from her pint and looked around the bar. She was already getting a little woozy. Alcohol and Ren didn't mix too well, she should know that by now. But being with her friends did, and so did making new experiences. And this 'Kilkenny' they served here she had never tried before. Kenneth has already finished his and was half through his second, which somehow explained his relaxed attitude. And his talking before thinking.

"Right you are. Where did we stop? Ah, I know. Those Japanese divers, those... what were they called again?"

"Ama", Ren replied with an inward sigh. No escaping now, the only thing she could do is try to save her face. And keep her smiling mask on. She just hoped that Kenneth didn't push that topic further in front of the Doctor.

"That really is a way of fishing?"

Ren nodded. "Yes, usually they are taught when they are young, and they work in groups. Close-knit communities, stretching over generations in an uninterrupted line. But not so much today", she added, "they are dying out. The young leave the villages, and the tradition dies."

"Like you?"

Ren felt the gaze of three pairs of eyes boring into her. She needed a moment to realize that the question didn’t come from Kenneth or Judy, but from Doctor Lindström.

“I… don’t dive”, she added, completely taken aback.

“That’s right”, Kenneth chimed in, the beer having lowered his common sense, as well as his empathy, apparently. "She doesn't, she just swims like a fish."

Ren shot him some dagger-like glares. But he didn’t notice, or simply didn’t care, when he continued. “You never even tried to dive.”

"I already told you, too much gear. And besides, what do you want to find down there?"

Kenneth and Judy just collected their thoughts, but the doctor beat them to the answer.

"There are a lot of theories that life began in the sea", he said. "So it is like looking into your origins."

Yes, she has heard that a lot. But there was another saying, the one her mother always told her. "That might be, but the ocean is not a friend. It is a predator, and sometimes you are lucky and swim away. But at other times…"

Lindström gave her one of those long stares. "'It is the hardest thing to frighten up a mongoose, because it is eaten up head to tail with curiosity'. Somehow I think you are more like a mongoose, don't you think? Run and find out?"

That comment left her speechless for a second. How could he know her so well already? But he had a point, and now she was on a trail, like a bloodhound. Or the mongoose Lindström mentioned.

"So you think when I dive I can get a better insight to the matter? Those two here try to persuade me since we met. And by the way, we haven't been properly introduced yet. My name is Tanaka. Ren Tanaka. Those are Judy Lecroix and Kenneth Brewer."

"Doctor Magnus Lindström" the man replied. Ren bowed her head before taking his outstretched hand. The handshake was firm and and with a purpose. It was a handshake that could change a life.


End file.
